Conventionally, there is provided various tape printing apparatuses in each of which a scissors-like cutter is operated by manually operating a cutter lever and a tape on which characters are printed by a printing head is cut.
For example, in Japanese Publication No. Hei 10-100494, it is disclosed a tape printing apparatus in which a platen holder retaining a platen roller is rotatably supported at one side of the tape printing apparatus and a cutter lever is rotatably supported at a position adjacent to the platen holder. In the tape printing apparatus, when printing is conducted, the platen holder is rotated toward a thermal head and characters are printed on the tape while the platen roller is contacted with the thermal head through the tape derived from a tape cassette.
In the above tape printing apparatus, when the tape on which characters are printed according to the above is cut, the cutter lever is rotated toward a holder member having a cutter blade and the holder member is pressed by a press member, thereby the tape is cut by the cutter blade. And when printing is not conducted, the platen holder is rotated toward a direction according to which the platen holder is separated from the thermal head, thereby a stopper portion of the platen holder is contacted with an end portion of the cutter lever. Thus, the cutter lever is made inoperable.
Further, as disclosed in Japanese Publication No. 2005-88239, it is proposed a tape forming apparatus which has the same construction as the above mentioned tape printing apparatus. In this tape forming apparatus, the cutter lever is rotatably arranged at one side of the main body and the platen holder rotatably supporting the platen is rotatably arranged at the other side of the main body.
In the tape printing apparatus disclosed in Japanese Publication No. Hei 10-100494, when printing is not conducted on the tape, the stopper portion of the platen holder is contacted with the end portion of the cutter lever, thereby the cutter lever is locked in the inoperable state. However, the platen holder and the cutter lever is arranged at the same side in the tape printing apparatus. In this case, one side of the tape printing apparatus is inevitably and largely protruded outward, therefore a balance of both sided in the tape printing apparatus is broken. In a case that one side of the tape printing apparatus is protruded, it become difficult for a user to grasp and support the tape printing apparatus by one of hands even if such tape printing apparatus is handy type one.
On the other hand, in a case of the tape forming apparatus disclosed in Japanese Publication No. 2005-88239, the cutter lever is rotatably arranged at one side of the main body and the platen holder rotatably supporting the platen is rotatably arranged at the other side of the main body. Thereby, there is no problem that one side of the tape printing apparatus is protruded and the tape printing apparatus can be constructed so as to have a balanced shape at both sides thereof.
However, as in the tape forming apparatus, in a case that the cutter lever and the platen holder are separately arranged at the both sides of the tape forming apparatus, it is very difficult to arrange a lock mechanism to make the cutter lever inoperable in the non-printing state between the cutter lever and the platen holder. Based on this situation, it is not provided in the tape forming apparatus disclosed in Japanese Publication No. 2005-88239 the lock mechanism to make the cutter lever inoperable.
In order to dissolve the above problem, the present invention has been done and has an object to provide a tape printing apparatus in which a cutter lever does not operable when the cover member is removed from the tape printing apparatus body and becomes operable when the cover member is attached to the tape printing apparatus body, thereby the cutter lever can be changed between an inoperable state and an operable state by a simple construction even if the cutter lever and the platen holder are separately arranged at the both sides of the tape printing apparatus.